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Rational Response Squad server ChipIn

Posted on: October 22, 2007 - 1:24pm

Gizmo

Posts: 397

Joined: 2007-03-06

Offline

Rational Response Squad server ChipIn

THIS THREAD IS MOOT NOW. RRS HAS PURCHASED A SERVER AND TAKEN ON THE BILL.

I am finally asking for some help. I took over the server at the beginning of July and frankly, it's getting to the point where I am having a hard time paying for it. Since July, the bills just for the rent of the server and bandwidth have exceeded $1k, which has been charged to one of my personal credit cards, which increases my own personal debt. If you have extra funds and you would like to donate towards the cost of keeping up this site and the other RRS network sites, I would highly appreciate it.

Quote:

EDITED IN BY SAPIENT: Gizmo initially started this chip in module asking for $1,000, however the server fees are phenomenally high and will only get higher with the addition of new sites that are being brought on for free, so I've asked him to raise it to $4,800. His volunteer time alone would have cost well over $10,000 if we had to pay for an outside company to do it.

It has been one of my goals to help construct other atheist sites that can be integrated into ours that would share the same name and password. A large community could be built with our diverging views. The last person who helped with server expenses was not helping as much as Gizmo. In the last month or two, Gizmo has volunteered no less than 50 hours per week of his time and about $250 per month of his own money to help pay for the server. In my ideal world, our server bill would be $500 per month. We would require a server that is fit for running a network of sites all within the top 25,000 most popular in America... and that day could come.

Technically RRS headquarters could afford this cost. It would be tight, but it could be done. We have budgeted for and grown accustomed to having donations pay our server fees. As far as I know, the money from the chip in module that Gizmo has set up goes straight to him. Please consider contributing to help the following sites stay online, and many more to come.

Server costs as they stand are $3,000 per year. They'd be higher if I knew I could add more sites on (that need our help, and were not created by us). We'll keep this chip in module up for a while to help cover this over the long run. Seriously, please keep in mind this server will help many others, not just us.

This stuff isnt free folks. I am sure that the paying gold members are apreciated, but if anyone can, maybe cut out a fast food meal or new cd or trip to the movies, and send it to keeping the server up, it does add up.

I know on my meger wages I find a way to do it. It doesnt have to be hundreds or thousands of dollars, although for those in higher tax brackets I'm sure this site wont complain about that kind of donation.

I am not speaking on behalf of RRS, just myself as a poster. But this oasis in a world of theism is needed. I know without sites like this I would be much more lonely and it would be more difficult to express myself.

Show your apreciation for the hard work of the admin and for RRS by donating.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."ObamaCheck out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under BrianJames Rational Poet also on twitter under Brianrrs37

Thanks guys, anything helps (and I do mean anything ;p). We are hoping that soon we will have a bunch more sites on here like ComedyJesus and Greydon's so the more the merrier. Also don't forget to Digg/etc stories as that brings more traffic which in turn brings more ad revenue.

Gizmo initially started this chip in module asking for $1,000, however the server fees are phenomonally high and will only get higher with the addition of new sites that are being brought on for free... per Gizmo suggesting it.

It's been a goal of mine to help build up other atheist sites that work together online that share the same name and password so a large community can be built even if there are diverging views. The last person who operated our server and helped incurr it's expense was not helping in this area nearly as much as Gizmo. In the last month or two Gizmo has volunteered no less than 50 hours per week of his time and about $250 per month of his money to help pay for the server. In my ideal world our server bill would be $500 per month as we would need a server fit for running a network of sites all within the top 25,000 most popular in America... and that day could come.

Yes technically RRS headquarters could now afford this cost. It would be tight, but it could be done. We've budgeted and got accustomed to having help paying our server fees. As far as I know the money from the chip in module that Gizmo has set up goes straight to him. Please consider contributing to help the following sites stay online, and many more to come.

Server costs as they stand are $3,000 per year. They'd be higher if I knew I could add more sites on (that need our help, and were not created by us). We'll keep this chip in module up for a while to help cover this over the long run. Seriously, please keep in mind this server will help many others, not just us.

; background-color: red; min-height: 0pt; min-width: 0pt; line-height: 0.8; visibility: hidden">There are some key threads here that should be bumped even if it would be considered spam. This is one of them.

I should note for people... Gizmo's contributions are extremely important. There aren't many guys out there as willing to help, as loyal as he is, as good as he is, and as independent as he is. He is willing to help quite a few more sites get up and running, and would be a huge asset if the 20 or so sites that he's hosting for us could have a guy like him full time. In an ideal world, Gizmo would make enough here to work full time, and he'd be worth every penny.

Please consider donating whatever you can.

I'm throwing in $5, and will do so every time I bump this thread. I challenge you to come up with your own number you can afford every time you bump it.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."ObamaCheck out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under BrianJames Rational Poet also on twitter under Brianrrs37

I talked with Gizmo at length today and he has alerted me that the financial situation is rougher than originally thought on his end. He's working on debt consolidation plans just so he can maintain paying the cost of our server. I put $50 in the chip in this time instead of $5 and plan to do so as often as I can. Obviously RRS funds will have to cover any differences when it comes down to it, and I'll do so if neccessary.

Please contribute with the chip in module above, any amount. It all goes directly to Gizmo who has done an amazing job at maintaining our server in addition to paying for it. If we had the money to afford it we'd be on an even more expensive server, in an ideal world we'd be paying $100 more per month for a total of $350 a month for even higher speeds.

I've made many alterations to the site in the last few days.

Some of those changes include:

1. removal of buddy lists (we weren't using them as intended and they slow us up)

3. reduction of images and the size of images loaded on the sides of pages

4. complete removal of the right sidebar for anything on the message board forum.

5. reduction in sidebars that load up on homepage itself

And much much more... Additionally in the last 3 weeks our site has gone from the 240,000th most popular site in the world to the 170,000th. In the last week we were the up to the 49,000th most popular site in the world, and the 25,000th in the US. We are on a mission to have our ideas win out in the marketplace of ideas. Increasing page load speed, and ability to access our server at all times without error is of vital importance to the goal.

6. While we still believe theism is irrational, and should be listed in the DSM so that extraordinary cases of theistic delusion can be treated with the appropriate medication, we have removed that wording from the header banner. This move will reduce the amount of traffic that views one page of the site and then leaves (due to being instantly turned off).

Every move we've made in the last 3 weeks has been highly centered on increasing web traffic which increases server load, while at the same time Gizmo is worried that he wont make rent. Traffic alone on our website doesn't always convert to dollars. Google ads, amazon, and subscriptions alone simply don't cover it all. If we are to have a secured spot in the number two slot (RDF #1) we need to prepare to not only afford to pay for the server we have now, but to be prepared to pay $100-$300 more per month as we grow.

We currently have several websites interested in becoming part of our shared network in which name and passwords are shared amongst all sites. However we are reluctant to jump on all offers and inquiries due to the potential problem it would cause for our own site if the new sites are also as successful as we are.

Sites that could be on board now if Gizmo (and crew) had the time/money to dedicate to the effort....

And 5 other sites run by semi-large atheist organizations that would all come on board if I knew that we could handle the load.

So instead of sending RRS an extra $20 this month... would you please send it directly to Gizmo using the chip in module in the first post?

RRS is fiscally responsible!

At their recent convention FFRF (Freedom from religion foundation) boasted a membership base of over 11,000 people. They have memberships ranging from $25-$500 (most memberships are $50 or more). If we take an average of $50 per member at 11,000 people they are pulling in $550,000 a year to maintain their organization. Our gross income will be about 1/10th that number for this year. AND WE GET MORE TRAFFIC!

We also get more traffic than Way of the Master: Way of the Master currently has a donation drive (above and beyond the hundreds of thousands they pull in on merchandise) to help keep their tv show alive. They've raised almost $400,000 in a few weeks. Again this is above and beyond the money they take in on merchandise. Putting your ideas in the marketplace is not cheap.

We are equally as effective as FFRF and WOTM at what we do, and we do it with one tenth the income.

We feel we manage our limited funds wiser than all of the comparable sites in our genre, we hate asking for money... but it's a neccessary evil. Please donate directly to Gizmo today! Any excess money will eventually go to increasing the strength of our server, but from the looks of it, we won't have any excess.

I put another $100 in the chip in module today for Gizmo. Will anyone match me today? How bout 2 people?

Last night at 4 am est as I again stayed up all night working on the site, I lost track of certain precautions I normally take in order to ensure I don't break the site. Html coding is not my specialty, however in the last few weeks I've taken it upon myself to get some long overdue work done in that area. With that said... at 4 am est time today I fucked the site up royally. I mean I fucked it good, like it's never been fucked. There aren't enough fucks in the world to express how fucking fucked up I fucking fucked myself and this fucking site.

So I start scrambling... fumbling around for a fix I know I don't have. I start calling Gizmo on his cell phone left and right. I was on a mission to wake his ass up and I called at least 10 times in as many minutes. I hit him up on skype and he answers instantly telling me his phone was off. And so we get started.... he half asleep and needing to be at his real life job in about 5 hours, me on my 50, 60, 70th hour of work (I can't even keep track anymore).

We analyze the situation together and we come to the determination that we are fucked. But just like every other time anything like this has ever happened Gizmo has been there to help. He never ceases to amaze me with how fast he can figure out our issues. Running a site like this and the coding that goes behind it is not his forte, as he'd tell you. He has an unbelievable amount of dedication, loyalty, and curiousity to learn more... and as time permits he has been there for us in a more critical role than any one of us have ever been on this site. If Margaret Downey is the glue that unites the most elite gathering of atheists in the world(and she is), then Gizmo is the glue that unites us all on this forum. Within 15 minutes he had a solution that I'd have never thought of, nor would have likely any of you (sans a few experts). Had he not come up with this backdoor solution, you'd be looking at a completely new version of this website. And 12 hours of work from both Gizmo and myself just to get things looking a little like normal.

I can't even begin to express my appreciation of his hard work and his financial contributions in the last year. We spoke tonight in more detail about his financial situation, and due to some changes in his life it's become harder to afford to help with the server. He has some credit card debt and can only pay the minimum balance each month if he continues to pay for the server on his own. I've offered to pay in so many different ways and every time I do so, you can hear the pain in his voice that he might have to take the money from me. He wants to contribute just as much as always, but can't technically afford to do it. He's a man that has a hard time asking for the money. We all have a hard time asking... but someone has to compete with this...

We were the number one ranked atheist website in the world this week, and we plan to hang with the big boys for a while... the ones with the deep pockets.

See the numbers below for LivingWaters (Wayofthemaster) VS. RationalResponders.com in the last week. We're ripping them up in server usage, and we make much less than 1/10th what they do. Folks... servers aren't cheap. Our network currently resides on a $250 per month server.

Not only were we the most popular atheist website in the world this week, but we want to add more, and expand. In order to do the things we want to do and help the people we want to help we'd need a server of up to $1,000 per month.

I put another $100 in the chip in module today for Gizmo. Will anyone match me today? How bout 2 people?

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -Bertrand Russel
The downside of knowledge is as you learn more you will soon realize how little you actually know.

Within 24 hours we'll update this chip in module to reflect a new direction and a new need to help pay for assistance. While Gizmo paid for the server fees he accrued somewhere between 1,500 and $2,000 in expenses. Feel free to chip in to him for a few more hours before we need massive assistance in a new direction. This thread will show you how to find the new thread looking for help.

You should feel increased speed and reliability from the network today, each day or two the work will become incrementally more noticeable until finally we take this site from 16 seconds a page load to 3 seconds a page load.

We're on a plan to be settled in a new home around Feb 5th if all goes well. I'm slightly scared to pull the trigger on a $3,000 investment, so if I miss the cut off we're talking March 5th to have all major work done. This will include many special features and benefits to any paid member or elevated free membership (ie: mods and free bloggers).